An investigation has revealed how gangs in Liverpool are sending their footsoldiers to the South West to peddle drugs to untapped markets.

The Merseyside gangs is looking for routes where there is demand but the local justice system may not be expecting them.

The money men at the head of criminal networks tend to stay away from their new patch, leaving their cronies to do their dirty work, risking arrest and, ultimately long jail sentences, reports the Liverpool Echo .

The drugs plots include one dealer who masterminded the delivery of £1million of heroin from Liverpool to Plymouth - all from his jail cell.

Plymouth has become a popular target but the gangs but it is Exeter in particular that has emerged as a target with the city becoming a a temporary home for some Liverpool dealers, with foot soldiers - often those who conduct the street deals - setting up residence in the ancient city. From there they can deal across the region.

Matthew Henney, William Toohey, Liam O’Brien, Callum Cheetham, Bartholemew Wrighton, Karl Mainard and Drew Morgan were jailed for their role in a plot to attack a rival drug dealer which left him fighting for his life

A ‘gold mine’

On Friday, a drug courier described Exeter as a “gold mine” for dealers.

Ryan Carney, jailed for peddling drugs on the Liverpool to Exeter "gold mine" cocaine run

Ryan Carney, 25, from Old Swan, was jailed for three years and nine months after being found with more than £2,000 of heroin and cocaine at the home of a vulnerable adult in the city.

A single trip from Liverpool to Devon was set to scoop him £900, he boasted to detectives.

Kinder Egg criminals

Some dealers are forced to set up a temporary home in south western UK cities to pay back cash owed for their own cannabis, cocaine or heroin addiction.

Liverpool pair Karl Flynn and Louis Douglas used a child’s orange Kinder egg to stash wraps of heroin inside, worth more than £5,000.

The homeless pair were found with £14,000 of heroin and crack cocaine when a house in Exeter was raided.

Both Douglas and Flynn were asleep when police swooped in June - with Douglas noticeably pale and sweating until a large package of heroin was produced from between his buttocks.

Drugs ring run from prison cell

Another far bigger and sophisticated long distance drugs plot was orchestrated from behind bars by Liverpool drugs kingpin Thomas Kehoe.

The 27-year-old masterminded a £1m heroin racket from his prison cell - while awaiting sentence over another drugs racket.

He was on remand at Exeter prison facing sentence for his role in a £5.8m drugs conspiracy between Liverpool and Devon.

But while awaiting his eventual 12-year sentence in July last year, Kehoe continued his trade, ordering £1 million of heroin to be moved from Liverpool to Plymouth.

Thomas Kehoe

Eventually, 18 members of his drugs gang were rounded up, and given sentences totalling a massive 140 years,

Its leaders lived the high life with their vast illicit profits - splashing cash on VIP boxes at Anfield and far-flung holidays.

They used a tiny cottage in a Devon village as their base to peddle cocaine and heroin shipped out of Merseyside.

Why the South West?

One drug dealing insider today told the Echo: “Quieter counties, like Cumbria, or Devon and Cornwall are seen to have less proactive policing operations, rather than operating in Liverpool or Merseyside, where dealing connections are long established.

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“Dealing to Exeter, for example, is far safer, and there is an untapped market which can make profits pretty lucrative.

“Even if you’re transporting the stash by car, the M6 and then M5 route is straightforward.

“Those quiet, sleepy service stations on the M5 have seen some sights in recent years.

“It’s a good place to conduct a drugs deal and it’s kind of neutral ground for everyone.”

Violence on the streets

Sometimes, with high profits at stake, dealing became violent.

Four Liverpool men were embroiled in the horrific turf war stabbing of Conor Cain at a flat in Exeter, in April 2016.

Rivals stunned the 20-year-old with pepper spray before stabbing him 15 times.

One blow was so brutal the blade snapped, meaning the attacker was unable to withdraw it from Cain.

Within hours of the attack, one of the Walton perpetrators - Matthew Henney - boasted about it to a female friend, sending a link to an online story on the Plymouth Herald's sister website Devon Live.

He wrote: “Ha, ha, ha. All murder went on last night. Ha, ha, ha. I stabbed the kid and the blade snapped so I could not pull it out. There was only the handle left.”

When she replied that it was “horrible” and “madness”, Henney replied: “F*** it though, He was only a little London muppet. He should not have tried to start. I warned.”

Public transport

Some brazen criminals used public transport networks to ferry their product from Merseyside to Devon.

Robert Wood, 18, from Anfield, was locked up after being caught red-handed with the super-strength stash in his boxer shorts.

He was intercepted by police as he stepped off a train from Liverpool at Exeter St David’s station and found with the high-purity drugs, which were destined to be diluted before being bagged up and sold onwards.

In court, Judge Graham Cottle’s comments to him summed up the growing Liverpool to Exeter drugs route.

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He said: “You were a courier delivering drugs to Exeter for street sale by others.

“They were going to be cut and prepared for dealing, flooding the streets of the city.

“You were caught red handed. You were an important cog in the wheel of distribution and played a significant role on any view.

“You owed money and were doing this to repay it. It may be that threats were made about what would happen if you failed to comply but that comes with the territory when you get involved in class A drugs.”

Cornish nan transported heroin under pasties

Fugitive Liverpool drugs lord Stephen Blundell headed another Liverpool to Devon and Cornwall conspiracy, and went on the run just before being sentenced for running the £1m drugs ring.

Then 36, he vanished for almost two years, eventually turning up in his Tenerife hideaway when he knew the game was up.

Stephen Blundell

Blundell headed up a 14-strong gang which channelled kilos of heroin from Merseyside down to the south west.

His crime group included a Cornish grandmother caught transporting £50,000 heroin under pasties in her shopping bag.

Detectives established that heroin was being transported from Liverpool to addresses in Devon before being distributed.